Conventional circuits use thin gate oxide IO devices to operate reliably on a 1.8V supply. Conventional circuits sometimes implement a comparator-based architecture for a receiver used in high voltage interfaces implemented with low voltage devices. Since such a comparator consumes DC power, this solution has the drawback of having constant power consumption.
It would be desirable to implement a receiver architecture that operates reliably under normal operation where I/O devices operating at one voltage (e.g., in the range of 2.5V/3.3V) may be used to interface with core devices operating at a second voltage (e.g., in the range of 1.8V) to meet LVCMOS JEDEC specifications.